Word: nondescript
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...book is about Lim Seng Chin, a.k.a. Johnny Lim, a poor boy of Hakka roots who rises to become a communist agent, then a Japanese collaborator and eventually the wealthiest man in the tin-laden Kinta Valley during and after World War II. The "factory" is a nondescript shophouse Johnny buys in 1942 to serve as home and headquarters for his many business schemes. "Our house was not the kind of place just anyone could visit," writes Johnny's only son Jasper, the first of the book's three narrators. "To be invited, you had to be like my father...
...Malgudi. The British, who are rarely mentioned in this book, have come and gone. World War II is recalled for its temporary effects on the price of rice. The riots that break out between Hindus and Muslims when India achieves independence are seen through the eyes of a neutral, nondescript hero: "It was on the whole a peaceful, happy life--till the October of 1947, when he found that the people around had begun to speak and act like savages." The assassination of John F. Kennedy reaches this region as a rumor, and a fairly incredible one at that...
...sometimes expresses itself in persecution of those who stand out. Consider the case of Kathi Hürter, 14, a top student at Bonn's Ernst-Moritz-Arndt-Gymnasium. About two years ago, Hürter says, many of her schoolmates started looking askance at her short hairstyle and nondescript outfits. But last winter, the situation escalated. Two girls in her class began to ridicule and bad-mouth her, saying she looked like a boy and calling her a nerd. They tripped her up, took her pens, and eventually resorted to hiding and damaging her backpack. "I guess...
...physically nondescript Peter Sellers (a pair of glasses, really, with a man attached) was known for vanishing wholly into his characters. He disappeared into Inspector Clouseau, Dr. Strangelove and Being There's Chance the Gardener. But did he have a character of his own? It is a credit to HBO's The Life and Death of Peter Sellers (Dec. 5, 9 p.m. E.T.) and its star, Geoffrey Rush (Shine), that this TV biopic sometimes makes you want to know. We meet Sellers as a young radio comic supported by a loyal wife (Emily Watson) and driven to want more...
China's central plains city of Ruzhou is nondescript in most ways, known to the rest of the country mainly as a source of prized decorative porcelain produced during the graceful Song dynasty eight centuries ago. Last week, the city's place in the nation's consciousness acquired a stain that may take years to fade. At midnight, a 21-year-old named Yan Yanming reportedly entered the dormitory of Ruzhou's No. 2 High School and slipped into the rooms where male students slept. Yan slashed some students' throats, according to Xinhua, the state news agency. Others he stabbed...